The Invisible Man is a tale as old as time. A man figures out a way to become invisible and with this newfound power he can become any numbers of things. He can become a hero, a monster, or a villain and since the character has been around for over a hundred years there seems to be nowhere else to go with this character.

This is where director Leigh Whannell comes in and says hold my beer. Bringing his signature directorial style which audiences adored in his cult hit Upgrade (if you haven’t seen it see it and thank me later) to the tale of the invisible man he imagines the figure as something even more terrifying in this modern world, a controlling egotistical monster of an ex.

Seeing is believing in The Invisible Man

Starring Elisabeth Moss The Invisible Man follows Cecilia Kass as she escapes from her smothering husband Adrian. He controls every aspect of her life and so she goes to extreme lengths to escape his clutches. After several weeks in isolation away from prying eyes she learns from her sister that Adrian has committed suicide due to the supposed trauma of losing her.

Hoping to finally find peace she begins to move on with her life but it is still an incredibly tough time as she is still quite on edge. She forgets things, burns things accidentally, it’s all to do with coming back to the real world, right? Wrong! There is a sinister force and its sole goal? To make Cecilia’s new life a living hell. Welcome to The Invisible Man!

I see you

I loved The Invisible Man. It’s been a little bit since I’ve been surprised by a film and an even longer time since I’ve been surprised by a horror but this film did it. How? Simple really director Leigh Whannell understands what scares people. It’s not supernatural forces, it’s the unbridled fury of an unhinged individual who believes they have full license to do anything they want with no repercussions.

I’ll start with the positives. The cinematography in this film is phenomenal which should be no surprise because as I’ll reiterate this is from the guy who brought us the delightfully insane Upgrade. Seeing the fights unfold around an invisible individual is fascinating. I also couldn’t take my eyes off the screen as Cecilia tried to figure out if Adrian is in a room or not. Whannell is bringing real intensity to a scene by doing the simplest of things, lingering on the empty space for an extra 10 seconds. That’s it. When a character leaves a room and the camera stays on that scene and there is no one in the scene your mind immediately begins to think – is he there? It’s a phenomenal job by the director and his team.

Not only that the score, my god the score is excruciatingly intense. As the action and horror ramp up this particular soundscape seems to accompany Adrian as he moves around unbeknownst to his victims and I can’t rave about it enough.

Listen though you can’t have a great horror without some decent characters and The Invisible Man has an intimate but impressive cast. Elisabeth Moss is her usual, she could have easily been just the victim screaming for help but she is so much more than that. She’s a survivor and as the events unfold she goes on quite the journey. The rest of the cast is seen sparingly but leave lasting impressions, especially Aldis Hodge and Storm Reid who play Cecilia’s childhood friend James and his daughter Sydney. They are an emotional foundation for her and so as the film picks up and Adrian rears his ugly face (he’s invisible so I don’t know if that makes sense as a descriptive) you know what Adrian is likely going to do and this brings me to some of the issues of the film.

Surprise

The Invisible Man is at times a surprisingly predictable story. You know what Adrian is likely going to do with this ability especially when the characters are describing what kind of individual he is.

Then there is the biggest issue that is twofold. The film does not know when to end. In my opinion, there are a solid 15 minutes I would hack off in the editing suite. As well as that the film is 2 hours long and it didn’t need to be. With a tight 100 minutes, this would have been an intense and unnerving delight that would have been perfect in my eyes (thank you). Nevertheless, The Invisible Man was eye candy and I recommend you go out and see it as soon as possible.

Stay tuned to Scannain for more news, reviews and interviews and I’ll see you soon.